Chapter 53: Path of Cultivation

"Could it have been only ten days?"

Previously immersed in cultivation, Xu Yuan was stunned to learn that time had actually passed barely over ten days.

From unranked to eighth rank pulse refinement—completed in less than two months.

Even though Xu Yuan had anticipated such a pace, he could still not help but be astounded by the speed of his cultivation.

Leaving the sealed chamber where the spring water was located, he walked along the long corridor of the inner courtyard outward.

Xu Yuan had decided not to continue training.

For the elixirs left by Xu Changge had long since been consumed. Without their protective and nourishing effects on the pulse and spirit, prolonged training would harm his foundational strength.

As he walked out, he saw many guards and instructors from the "Wu Xuan Academy" coming to train here.

Most of those who entered the inner courtyard were at the seventh or sixth rank; only a few were exceptional talents at the eighth rank.

Both male and female.

Practice assesses merit, not gender.

Men are all thick-muscled and solid.

Women, though they retain faint traces of feminine curves, possess muscles beneath their clothing that are just as tangible and substantial.

Yes—no aesthetics, no fitness, just raw muscle, massive and dominant.

Among them, several women with striking features even outsize Zhou Chen’s own frame.

As his gaze sweeps across, an accidental glance catches the eye, and Xu Yuan’s eyelids twitch involuntarily.

Zhou Chen notices Xu Yuan’s stare and chuckles with a strange, knowing smile:

"Sir, all these individuals follow the path of the martial trainee, much like ordinary people learn martial arts—thus, their bodies are generally robust and strong."

"What is a martial trainee?"

The unfamiliar term stirs surprise in Xu Yuan’s voice. He whispers, "What exactly is a martial trainee?"

After Su Jinxuan's sudden attack, Xu Yuan realized he still knew far too little about the extraordinary powers in this world. He needed to learn more about the relevant information.

Zhou Chen chuckled softly,

"Of course, the eight, nine, and tenth ranks we're currently practicing are named after the Three Stages of Martial Trainees established originally by the Monastery of Heavenly Oversight—Body Forging, Pulse Refining, and Bone Cultivation..."

"Hold on—"

Xu Yuan suddenly interrupted. He had never heard of this name, not even in Cangyuan. He asked quietly, "Is the Monastery of Heavenly Oversight a sect?"

Zhou Chen, unbothered, casually explained,

"Yes, though it has been destroyed for over ten thousand years. Most of the current cultivation ranks still follow the divisions they originally set."

"Dividing the realms of cultivation?" Xu Yuan's pupils slightly narrowed.

Zhou Chen took a sip of wine,

"Of course. Otherwise, how could cultivation ranks just appear out of nowhere?"

"The Way of Qi, the Way of Martial Arts, the Way of Spirit, and the Way of Array—many of these were established by the Hall of Celestial Oversight.

"Yet, having passed the ten thousand years, practices such as those of martial apprentices have become utterly obsolete in today's world. It is only due to habit, and because no one has ever unified the rules, that the names of the stages have persisted unchanged."

"......"

Xu Yuan's eyes flickered momentarily, instinctively reaching out to ask for more details—but ultimately, he restrained himself.

For such intricate matters of cultivation paths, it would be better to consult the ancient texts in the Archive of Knowledge in the future.

Nodding slightly, calming his mind, Xu Yuan glanced at the martial apprentices:

"Mr. Zhou, please continue with their stories."

Zhou Chen smiled faintly:

"Of course. Those who follow the path of martial apprentices are only granted cultivation techniques by the Imperial Household upon reaching the peak of the Seventh Rank, the stage of Bone Refinement."

Saying this,

Zhou Chen gently shook his head, as though moved by a deep reflection:

"Lord, do not be deceived by their current size. Once they reach the sixth rank of iron body, and begin to refine their own sinews, bones, and flesh, they will naturally return to their original state."

Xu Yuan listened carefully, then asked with slight confusion:

"Master Zhou, you mean they currently lack a cultivation technique? If they have no technique, how can they draw the Source Qi into their bodies?"

Zhou Chen glanced at Xu Yuan, then fell silent for a moment:

"Without a technique, they can only rely on the slow, arduous methods of martial trainees to strengthen their bodies."

Xu Yuan's mind stirred slightly:

"Could such a body-building method actually draw Qi into the body?"

Zhou Chen nodded, then sighed:

"This body-building method is outdated and primitive. Yet it does allow Qi to enter the body at a relatively slow pace. Moreover, it does not require the use of spirit essence—though it inevitably leaves behind lifelong, incurable hidden ailments."

"Secret ailment?"

Xu Yuan furrowed his brow, murmuring softly, his thoughts flashing like sparks—then, with sudden clarity, he exhaled gently.

They weren't unwilling to choose; they simply had no choice.

Zhou Chen shook his head, sighing lightly, with a faint smile:

"Lord, for people like us, there's no other way to train besides this. To have access to even the most basic training methods is already a great blessing.

"After all, techniques like these are truly out of reach for ordinary people..."

Xu Yuan remained silent for a long time, then suddenly turned his gaze toward the men practicing martial arts in the courtyard, asking softly:

"Master Zhou, could you tell me about it?"

"......."

Zhou Chen glanced at those towering figures as well, picked up the wine flask at his waist, took a quiet sip, his eyes flickering with a distant memory, and began to speak, slowly and softly, of things from the past...

.....

This outdated method of cultivation still persists, fundamentally because of five words:

The Way must never be lightly transmitted.

Almost every cultivation technique and secret text is monopolized by sects and noble families. Yet there are so many people in the world who desperately seek to change their fate through cultivation.

So many that countless lives are lost every day for this very reason.

Zhou Chen, before ever touching cultivation and while wandering through the streets and alleys, had seen countless individuals die in pursuit of a fragmentary technique—left without a grave.

To obtain a cultivation method, to even begin practicing, ordinary people had only two paths: a rare stroke of fortune, or joining the military or becoming a servant in a noble household, receiving rewards in exchange.

Don’t ask the sects—how they recruit disciples is even less reliable.

Every few years, each sect does indeed open its gates for a brief period and accepts new disciples. But these accepted disciples all possess at least top-tier talent; those with average potential are simply rejected.

The reason is simple.

Most sects have survived for millennia, their original disciples long since giving rise to noble families within the sect. These families continuously send their descendants with natural aptitude for cultivation to the sect to train.

A sect can only support so many disciples. You, a commoner with no lineage, stepping into the fold—wouldn't you be usurping the cultivation resources meant for the descendants of established families?

Given equal cultivation potential, how could you, a commoner with no background, possibly be chosen over others?

Under such circumstances,

Ten years ago, the Tian'an Trading Association gradually established a martial academy known as Tian'an.

In ancient times, martial academies were countless, but over the decades, only a few remained.

Because,

Tian'an Academy taught genuine martial arts—the true methods of cultivation for martial disciples.

And precisely because of this, even with the protection of the Great Inflame Chancellor, the vast Tian'an Trading Association faced collapse on multiple occasions.

Yet, over time, the great families, the sects, and the affiliated clans eventually reached a compromise and came to an end.

They too established martial academies in the bustling streets, only to see the scale of later generations fall far short of the Tian'an Martial Academy under the Prime Minister's household.

Regardless of the motives behind the upper echelon's conflicts, or the outcomes that followed, ordinary people at last found a path to cultivation.

Even if the practice proved arduous,

even if it might compromise one's foundational strength,

for those who had never had access to any form of cultivation—this remained the only chance.

Zhou Chen was one of them.

With silver saved through years of deceit, trickery, and petty schemes in the common streets, Zhou Chen became one of the first to enter the Tian'an Martial Academy.

Yet within the academy, everything was vastly different from what he had imagined.

The hundred taels of silver painstakingly accumulated at the cost of his life were exchanged for merely a body-strengthening fist technique, a modestly clean single room, and a shared dwelling with over a thousand fellow students in the outskirts of the city.

No one-on-one instruction, no imagined medicinal baths, not even a decent qualification test.

This made him feel deceived.

Yet gradually, he began to realize that the money had been well spent.

At least, for a prodigy, it had been worth it.

Though the Tian'an Martial Academy had only just been established, its internal structure was already quite refined.

Various assessments, numerous rankings, and frequent grand competitions.

In short,

the capable stayed, the incapable left.

Of course, one could stay too—if they were willing to keep paying.

Training resources were distributed according to rank; the higher one's position on the rankings, the greater the resources they received.

Every disciple in every martial arts academy strives upward, breaking their heads in pursuit of that single path of ascent.

Along the way, countless are eliminated...

Innumerable perish...

And Zhou Chen,

was precisely forged in such an environment,

rising step by step, risking his life, crawling, stumbling, and enduring through it all—

a Third-Rank Grand Master.